Francesco Bove was heading into Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church on Belmont Ave. and E. 187th St. about 9:30 a.m. Friday when the dogs apparently broke free of their harnesses and began clawing and biting him — an attack so violent that a priest at Mount Carmel gave Bove last rites.

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"I told him I feel I'm dying," Bove told the Daily News Saturday afternoon from his hospital bed, his arms and head wrapped in bandages as he recalled the moments after the two animals ripped into him.

The priest, he said, told him, "Don't give up,' so I don't give up."

Police said the dogs' owner, Cynthia Oliver, ordered the dogs to attack after an argument, but Bove, an Italian immigrant, said he never talked to the woman.

"Those dogs, they were trained to fight," Bove said.

Bove, an artist who lives in Coney Island, and himself owns a "lovely" pit bull — Gina — was in the Bronx to explore ways to restore the church's marble facade.

As the dogs approached, he thought they wanted to be petted, but the canines had something else in mind. "They came to me, and I thought they were friendly but they jumped on me and I felt the bite," he said. "I started to kick them off. I lost a big chunk of my arm. I could see it. I could see the bone."

The dogs also ripped off most of his right ear. All Bove saw was red. "My ear, I couldn't see it, but there was blood everywhere," the native of Isernia, Italy, said.

Graphic cellphone video shows the dogs relentlessly lunging at Bove as he writhed on the ground in the middle of the street. Good Samaritan Emilio Ortiz, 46, tried to help, but the dogs kept at it and dragged Bove to the curb, their teeth clamped on his arms.

Gilbert Perez, one of two good samaritans who helped save Francesco Bove, shows how he grabbed the first dog to pull it off of Bove. (Michael Schwartz for New York Daily News)

"It was very clear by his clothes that while he was on the floor the dogs wanted his blood ... they wanted it," Bove's son Anthony Bove said. "They were licking the blood where it was sprayed on the street."

Several neighbors jumped in — armed with hoses, chains and bats — and tried to pull the dogs off. They also blasted them with water, but the dogs continued the assault, police said.

Madeline Rayor watched the scene unfold with her 8-year-old son from their second-floor apartment. "We were both screaming, crying, on the phone calling 911. 'Please do something! Please get the dogs!'" she added.

When the animals finally relented, after cops and firefighters armed with hoses moved in, blood could be seen pooling beneath Bove, before he got up and staggered away.

Bove was in stable condition at St. Barnabas Hospital on Saturday.

Oliver was arrested on eight counts of assault and two counts of reckless endangerment. She remained in jail on $35,000 bail Saturday, officials said.

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Bove has stayed positive and joked to his son that at least he hadn’t been attacked by a lion. (Michael Schwartz for New York Daily News)

The attack was apparently not the first by the dogs. A neighbor, Marguerite Gauthier, 55, said one of the dogs bit her on the leg early last year, requiring her to get a tetanus shot.

"The dogs are vicious," she said, adding, ""When I go out, I always look to make sure they're not around."

Meanwhile, Bove underwent five hours of surgery Friday night and is expected to stay in the hospital at least a week to undergo another surgery to move a nerve from his leg into his arm, his son said.

Bove has stayed positive and joked to his son that at least he hadn't been attacked by a lion.

He even showed some compassion for Oliver, who has been arrested 37 times since 1987, mostly on drug offenses.

"She was a petite, weak lady. (The dogs) were dragging her wherever they go and she couldn't hold onto (the leash)," he said. The two pit bulls were taken to a city Animal Care and Control facility, and may have to be euthanized, officials said.

They may have treated him like a chew toy, but Bove is worried about the fate of his attackers. "I'm so sorry that they're going to put them down," Bove said. With Chauncey Alcorn